Ping Pong.... In Space

[Spacescifi]

I just had an idea which like most I am skeptical how practical it is IRL, but in theory it could work.

What you need:

 

1. Electromagnetic space cannon launch tubes... in orbit.

2. Spider silk webbing or it's equavalent in space with the same adhesive properties it has in atmosphere. A ring will hold a large net.

 

3. A pair of Project orion vessels serve as anchors for the web ring on it's flanks. When EM launch cannon launches anything and is pushed backward into the web, the web catches it and releases it's momentum back to what was before.

The orion's cancel out the momentum of the web ring with bomb propulsion as needed  Thus no orbit degradation for either.

 

4. Launch web rings to orbit planets via spacecraft. Then launch fusion fuel pellet packets to hit the webs, which release them and launch the toward a caravan of ramscoop spacecraft which will 'eat' and burn the pellets in pulses for fuel.

 

 

Main question: Would a web that had all the properties of spider silk be up for the job? Or would we need something stronger?

I read somewhere that a large web of a few hundred meters or so could stop a jet airliner in midair!

 

 

Edited December 4, 2021 by Spacescifi

[SunlitZelkova]

6 hours ago, Spacescifi said:

2. Spider silk webbing or it's equavalent in space with the same adhesive properties it has in atmosphere. A ring will hold a large net.

Definitely not actual spider silk webbing. It is organic material, which likely wouldn't do well in a vacuum.

Regardless of your proposal's real life feasibility, this would be excellent for a soft sci-fi satire about efficiency and the self-interest of different entities (government, corporations, officials, etc.) in space exploration.

[Spacescifi]

28 minutes ago, SunlitZelkova said:

Definitely not actual spider silk webbing. It is organic material, which likely wouldn't do well in a vacuum.

Regardless of your proposal's real life feasibility, this would be excellent for a soft sci-fi satire about efficiency and the self-interest of different entities (government, corporations, officials, etc.) in space exploration.

 

I just thought it would be better than rotating orbital tethers... since tethers need propellant to de-spin them on occasion.

Edited December 4, 2021 by Spacescifi

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

15 hours ago, Spacescifi said:

Read somewhere that a large web of a few hundred meters or so could stop a jet airliner in midair

That's one of those problems where some writer is trying to impress the reader with the amazing property of spider silk - and trying to analogize bug scale things to human scale... Except for the fact that it doesn't work that way. 

 

[Scotius]

7 hours ago, Spacescifi said:

I just thought it would be better than rotating orbital tethers... since tethers need propellant to de-spin them on occasion.

And you need nuclear bombs to keep your web contraption in place, after the payload deposits its momentum in the web.